Vidyamala Burch OBE is a mindfulness teacher, author and founder of mindfulness organisation Breathworks. Vidyamala began teaching mindfulness for managing pain and illness following spinal injuries that left her with partial paraplegia. She began to explore mindfulness to manage her condition and she found the results to be life changing.

In 2004, she developed the world’s first mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM) programme which is now taught globally by Breathworks and has reached more than 100,000 people. Through her work, Vidyamala passes on the tools for living well with disability, pain, illness and stress that have helped her reclaim a full and rich life. Vidyamala is passionate about making mindfulness accessible to everyone: Breathworks is a charitable foundation that provides bursaries and scholarships to those who are financially limited.

Over the COVID-19 pandemic, Vidyamala and Breathworks created a free toolkit of mindfulness resources for key workers and those suffering with stress and anxiety which has been used by tens of thousands of people globally. In conjunction with UCL she also created mindfulness resources for people living with Long COVID that is available through an NHS app.

Vidyamala is an award-winning author of three books in 17 languages, and an honorary member of the British Pain Society in recognition of her contribution to the field of pain management. She has also been on the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 List every year since 2019.

In the June 2022 Jubilee Birthday Honours List Vidyamala was awarded an OBE for her services to wellbeing and pain management.